The Draconids meteor shower puts on a show and the Moon brushes past the Pleiades star cluster in this week’s stargazing guide for 2 to 8 October, 2023. Listen now to catch all the week’s astronomy highlights.
Chris Bramley: Hello and welcome to Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine. You can subscribe to the print edition by visiting skyatnightmagazine.com or to our digital edition by visiting iTunes or Google Play.
Ezzy Pearson: Greetings listeners, and welcome to Star Diary, a weekly guide to the best things to see in the northern hemisphere's night sky. As we are based here in the UK, all times are in BST. In this episode, we'll be covering the coming week from 2 to 8 October. I'm features editor, Ezzy Pearson, and I'm joined today by reviews editor, Paul Money.
Hello, Paul.
Paul Money: Hello, Ezzy we've got quite a decent amount of features, things to look for this week. So, it's a good week.
Ezzy: Oh, that's always great to hear. Why don't you start getting us through them then?
Paul: Well, we still have a parade of planets. All except Mars, just like we had the other week, so we've still got that, and that'll last all week.
So, you know, if you're into planets you should be almost in heaven because you've got loads of planets to explore during the course of the night, from Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Uranus, the minor world Vesta as well, and Venus, and later in the night...
Mercury as well, but we are getting to the end. We'll come to Mercury in a moment, but we are getting to the end of its apparition.
And of course, we've got the Milky Way, the winter constellation, the winter Milky Way, but you've got to bear in mind, the Moon is in the morning sky now. And that does give us a few events. In the very early hours of 2 October we will find the Moon is actually not far from Jupiter and Uranus, by the time we get to the late evening of 2 October then the Moon actually lies, this is about 10 o'clock in the evening, over towards the east, it lies between Uranus and the Pleiades.
Now, You can't see Uranus with the naked eye easily. You know, you do need... having the Moon there will not help, but binoculars will show it quite well. But it's the fact that the Moon is almost equidistant between Uranus and the Pleiades is a great guide. So basically, if you go from the Pleiades to the Moon and then carry on a little bit, you should come to Uranus as well, sort of thing.
So it is one of those planets that was seen in antiquity with the naked eye and recorded as a star. I mean, they could have discovered it! They could have been famous! But they didn't realise that. It's just one of those things, isn't it?
Now, the thing about the morning sky and the Moon, because we've got the Moon quite close to Uranus and the Pleiades, if you follow that, that was at 10 o'clock in the evening on 2 October if you again follow the Moon during the course of the night, it creeps ever closer to the Pleiades star cluster.
And this will be a really good view in binoculars. Now, you've got to bear in mind, astrophotographers take deep photographs of the Pleiades that bring out the nebulosity. You won't see the nebulosity, but you will see, say around about six o'clock, so just as morning twilight is beginning, you will see the Moon quite close to the Pleiades, Messier 45, the Seven Sisters star cluster.
So it's going to be a gorgeous sight in binoculars and you'll see a smattering of stars above the Moon and I think that'll be a gorgeous sight. Harder to photograph because you've got the glare of the Moon, you'll probably have to take two photographs and then do a composite. So one for the exposure for the Pleiades, one for the moon itself, because the exposure for the Pleiades will burn out the Moon, but bear that in mind.
It is quite close, but I've done it in the past, and it can produce quite an interesting picture, which is very akin to what you see with the naked eye. We do see all these wonderful pictures with the nebulosity, and that's fair enough, but you don't see that with the naked eye, or even with binoculars.
It's very, very difficult. I've seen it with small telescopes, especially the patch Merope. Hanging out from the star Merope. But, you know, it does need good dark conditions. Of course, we've got the Moon next to it. But it is a glorious sight, and I say, to see this quite dense cluster next to the Moon, so close to the Moon.
I've been getting gradually excited over the last couple of years, because the Moon's orbit is tilted, and it precesses around us as well. so it's gradually moving the Moon closer and closer to the Pleiades, and in the next few years we'll start to see occultations of the Pleiades stars as well. So I'll be excited about that because you have to wait.
It's an 18 year, it's called the Saros, it's 18 years. sequence. So, we have to wait for that. And once he's over, of course, then you've got to wait quite a long time before you get the next one. So I'm looking forward to this sort of thing, seeing these occultations. And of course, we'll be able to mention them in the podcast, the Star Diary podcast as such.
Now, that evening of 3rd, the Moon itself will lie the other side of the Pleiades. So you'll see the Moon during the course of that night from sort of the late evening of 2nd through to the evening of 3rd, you'll see the Moon flip sides, go from one side of the Pleiades to the other.
So I always find that fascinating.
Ezzy: We talked about, a bit about that on last week's episode with the Moon passing beneath Saturn. When you have these kind of frames of reference in the night sky, it really does bring home how much the Moon does move across the course of a night. So definitely I think that's something worth paying attention to.
It also might make an interesting sequence of pictures. If you are going to be out there photographing the Pleiades and the Moon together, maybe don't just take one, take several throughout the night so you can see how the Moon moves across. We'd definitely be interested to see those and any other pictures that you might take of the Pleiades and the Moon, or anything else in the night sky.
You can find details on how to do that on the website www.skyatnightmagazine.com. And I will also put a link to the page which gives you information about how you can send us your astrophotos. We will print the best in the magazine and we always love to see them.
Paul: Excellent. Now we turn to 4 October. Yes, I'm afraid it's the morning sky. That's the trouble. A lot of the events are happening in the morning sky at the moment. But Venus still dominates. I mean, it's so high up, it is really well placed to observe. And so again, sort of thing... but now we've got the Moon into the morning sky, you won't get a chance to do the Venus shadow, as we described the other week.
However, it does dominate. And on the fourth, it lies to the right of Regulus. It's almost, but not quite, level with Regulus in Leo. So, you know, Leo's a spring constellation. Now we've got the spring constellations back, so I'm getting excited because we've got lots of constellations to look at. Lots of objects to look at as well.
And remember, the spring constellations are the galaxies... Galaxy season. So, I always think that although they say spring is galaxy season, you can start now! Start in autumn, if you really wanted. You've got a whole range of, you know, nebulae and clusters in sort of Orion, etc. and the Pleiades.
And then you've got the spring galaxies as well, to finish your night. So you can have a whole range of different objects observed during the course of the night.
So they're now visible. Venus is, say, quite prominent, quite to the right of Regulus. And as the progresses as the week progresses.
Keep an eye on that as well. Again, we're getting the clockwork motion because you can see Venus slowly move closer and below Regulus. It won't be directly below, we need that next week, but you can see the motion. Venus does move quite fast against the background stars.
So that's the difficulty with Mercury. It's always in twilight, so you don't see as many stars around Mercury, but Venus gets far enough away from the glare of the Sun that you see it in a dark sky as well. In fact, you can start observing Venus from around about three o'clock in the morning, if not a little earlier. So, that's in a dark sky as it rises higher. So, there we are.
Mind you, We are getting our final glimpses of Mercury this week. It has been dropping down and it was getting brighter, but now it's moving down so quick that by the end of the week we will actually lose it. So catch it about 6am in the morning. It'll be very low. You need a very uncluttered eastern horizon for it, but you'll still at least have Venus.
So when we lose Mercury, you lose that parade of the planets and such, but you still have Venus to look at. That'll be lovely, won't it?
Ezzy: Yeah, you actually mentioned that earlier, that Venus moves quite quickly across the night sky, and so does Mercury, which is one of the reasons why it's quite difficult to see, is because it move... It's in a good position and then it moves out really quickly. And that was why it was called Mercury is because it was such a fast motion across the night sky. And it got named after the messenger of the gods who is renowned for his speed. Which is one of the reasons it got its name.
Paul: Yes. The other name being the fleet footed one. And it did move and it does move. That's the thing about Mercury. This is why it's best to see it at these really good apparitions because you get longer to actually enjoy the view of Mercury. And of course, if you've got a telescope, you know, it's worth... Mercury does show phases. It's harder because it's smaller, but it does show phases as well.
So, we get towards the end of the week. We've dealt with a lot in the morning sky, and that means you've got to get up. Boo! But... We end the week with, well, it's a meteor shower, it's the Draconids. Now, the thing about the Draconids, technically they peak in daylight on the morning of 9th, which really means the evening of 8th is the best chance, because In the evening, there's no Moon.
So you've got dark skies, and you'll have dark skies up until about midnight, which is when the moon will start to rise. And this time of year, of course, you've got quite a length of dark sky. You've got quite a reasonable amount of dark. You'll have at least four hours, four to five hours of dark sky to look out for meteors.
Now, the Zenith Hourly Rate, this rate... this is what we really call it a theoretical rate, because it's the Absolute perfect condition, looking directly up, etc. Pitch black skies, you know, sort of thing.The best conditions would be, would be no atmosphere, but then you wouldn't see a meteor, would you?
Ezzy: No.
Paul: That's the catch, because I've heard that somebody said, "Oh, if there was no atmosphere, it'd be brighter." So, well, no, because you need the atmosphere to burn up in. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to see it. But, there's zenithal hourly rate is 5 but it is variable it does change and sometimes we pass through debris that's been released because this is Comet Gacobini-Zinner that actually produced the meteors. So the Draconid sort of thing will be worth looking out for even if it's a slow rate they are fairly slow meteors. And although it's a low rate, they do have sort of like variability because sometimes we pass through debris that's been released by the parent comet a long time ago.
And so, you know, don't just look around the peak night. You could keep an eye out: you might be lucky, you might see some.
So as the Moon rises at midnight, as soon as it gets dark. The actual radiant is quite high up in the northwest sky, so it's well worth having a look at, and it's circumpolar, so the radiant is circumpolar. So you've got a chance to see meteors all through the night. But I say the better conditions will be before the Moon rises and starts to spoil the view with its moonlight, so worth keeping a lookout.
Don't get your hopes up. I'm sure the media will be saying, "oh, fantastic meteor shower tonight", because... They always seem to do that, don't they? But we astronomers go, oh no, not again, because we realise that you have to be a lot more patient with meteors. They're not like the Perseids, although having said that, mine were spoiled this year, mainly all cloud, and I think I saw two in the end.
Ezzy: I think one of the problems that happens with the Draconids as well is because occasionally - because they are a bit variable - occasionally there is a really, really good shower where. People report seeing thousands, hundreds of meteors per hour. But that's happened about three times in the last hundred years and there's no real way to predict when it's going to happen.
So it's always worth heading out. You never know, you might be that one year, you might get lucky. And obviously there's lots of other things to see in the night sky, so always worth heading out on that particular night.
But thank you Paul for taking us through everything to see in this week's night sky. And to summarise everything again.
Throughout the week, you will be able to see all of the planets, except for Mars, who is currently hiding behind the Sun.
On 2 October, you might want to take particular attention to look at Uranus, which will be next to the Pleiades, with the Moon in between the two of those.
Then on 3 October, the Moon comes very close to the Pleiades again. It will be within the same binocular field of view, and you can gradually see the Moon moving beneath the cluster across the night. A very good photo opportunity there.
On 4 October, Venus is to the right of the star Regulus and it will be moving closer throughout the week as it progresses. You can see the very fast movement of Venus with that one. It's also your final chance to get a glimpse of the planet Mercury on 4 October.
And then finally, to finish off the week on the evening of 8th going into 9th of October, it is the Draconid's meteor shower. It's not generally one of the most prolific ones, but it's always worth getting out there and seeing if you can see any.
So hopefully you've got lots to get on with this week. If you would like even more stargazing, Highlights and tips, please do subscribe to the podcast and we will see you here next week.
If you want to find out even more spectacular sights that will be gracing the night sky this month, be sure to pick up a copy of BBC Sky at Night magazine, where we have a 16 page pullout sky guide with a full overview of everything worth looking up for throughout the whole month.
Whether you like to look at the moon, the planets, or the deep sky, whether you use binoculars, telescopes, or neither, Our Sky Guide has got you covered, with detailed star charts to help you track your way across the night sky. From all of us here at BBC Sky at Night magazine, goodbye.
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Star Diary podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night magazine. For more of our podcasts, visit our website at skyatnightmagazine.com or head to Acast, iTunes or Spotify.
